There wasn’t anything funny about the way the Bears lost their season opener in Green Bay, which is a change from the way the Bears lost under John Fox and in that second and final year of Marc Trestman.

“Funny” might not sound like the right word for that four-year stretch of gross incompetence masquerading as a charter franchise of the NFL, but in those years, the Bears regularly elicited gallows humor in the press box, on Twitter and in bars and living rooms across Chicago

How low, you wondered every week, could they go? For many it was either laugh or cry or tweet crazy stuff.

But things are different now under Matt Nagy and with Khalil Mack. One game, and one close loss, into the new regime, I can appreciate a sea change beginning to happen. It will take time. I wouldn’t save up for playoff tickets just yet. But I think some guarded optimism about the franchise’s direction is fair.